I for one look forward to your rants.
[WS:] Thanks. I was about to unsub, but that changed my mind.
BTW, I'm listening to a CD of old Young Pioneer songs, including my favorites, "Lenintsy idut" (The Leninists are Coming) and that great song about how Pioneers should always be ready ("Pioner, bud' gotov, vsegda bud' gotov!") to serve the country of the Soviets. I assume Poland had a comparable child recreation/political indoctrination system, leading into whatever the Polish version of Komsomol was. Did you guys also have the Oktyabryata (the pre-Pioneers little kids organizations, the "October babies" I would translate it as)?
[WS:] Of course, organizational models were emulated all over Comecon countries. However, they would adapt them to the local conditions and tastes. For example, in Poland they had the Union Of Socialist Youth (known under its acronym ZMS) - which was a knock off of the Soviet Pioneers, but they also cultivated locally grown youth organizations similar to boy scouts, which had two levels, for younger kids (I think pre-school age or about it) and for older ones.
As to their political indoctrination function, I guess it really is in the eye of the beholder. Yes, they dished out heavy dollops of patriotism cum nation building cum lip service to socialism - but I do not think this was much different from similar organizations in, say, France, Germany, the UK or the US. So if one likes the official ideology of any of those particular states, one would see the function of these organizations as social solidarity - patriotism- and individual character- building. If one does not like that ideology, otoh, one would certainly call it indoctrination.
It is important to add, however, that in addition to their patriotic/indoctrination function, these organizations did perform very important socialization functions, ranging from teaching personal hygiene (I recall a song whose lyrics proclaimed that a good pioneer always carries a towel, soap and a toothbrush in his rucksack), to child care, recreational and extra-curricular activities (since as a rule both parents worked), to social integration of kids coming from different family backgrounds, to ideals of volunteering and public service, and to the preparation for acquiring occupational skills.
A more general observation. Contrary to the US-centric view that civil society organizations perform mainly benevolent, philanthropic and kindred "do good" functions, these organizations were often in the center of intense political struggles. The crucial question was not what these organizations did, since all of them performed similar functions (a mixture of social service cum social cohesion building), but whose organizations are to be anointed by the state to "officially" perform these functions.
Thus, political regimes would, as a rule, support "their own" civil society organizations through government grants and service contracts, while discriminating against organizations of their enemies. This can be observed anywhere from the French Revolution (supporting "republican" political clubs while banning "monarchist" organizations affiliated with the catholic church,) to fascist Germany, Italy, Spain or Portugal, which "extinguished" working class mutual associations, cooperatives and unions, while pumping money into conservative church-affiliated social service organizations, to the Soviet bloc countries that did the exact opposite, to colonial and post-colonial African countries where a regime change spells a sea change in the alignment of NGOs, community based organizations, youth organizations, women's organizations, to Bush administration promoting "faith based organizations" while attempting to "defund the Left" by cutting government money going to nonprofits.
Civil society associations are the major tool through which political power operates, as they cement alliances and loyalties between different social classes and interest groups. They have also been the scene of major political battles that took place in the not-so distant past (e.g. battle for social welfare state). If I were in the business of promoting the Revolution (or at least major institutional overhaul), I would not waste my time on studying economic theories, including those of Karl Marx. Instead, I would devote my effort to studying the art and history of associations (which I happen to be doing anyway).
Wojtek